BtVS-Reviews@khom.de: Angel

In Faith we trust (and at Cordy we thrust)

4.13. Salvage, Airdate: 03/05/03 (WB, 8/9c).

Faith is back - and I didn't know how much I missed her. I fell in love with
this week's very first pictures of her. Honestly, Faith's fight in prison
with that lunch-lady-like punchball (3.18 Earshot, wasn't it?), and the guard saying: "Caught
us in surprise." - hey, that's pretty much how I hoped, Faith would come
along. Once she was there, cool things didn't cease happening. When Faith hit the
streets again, I couldn't help thinking: That's our sexy slayer in charge.

I loved how she looked at (new) Wesley, saying: "Wow, you look great." The
pacing was extraordinary, Evil Cordelia a pain in the ass as always, Lorne -
unfortunately - not very useful (Andy Hallett really can be a damn good
Lorne, so give him lines, guys!), Angelus just kicking-ass-ly evil, Gunn and
stunningly beautiful Fred as poor on lines as Lorne - and there's been a
minor detail I just hated:

How come the Beast made a stake out of its own substance? Wasn't that really
stupid? It's like a vampire providing his stake in order to relieve the
slayer from the duty of bringing her own one. This didn't make much sense,
did it?

For the first time in season four I came to like Connor, and feeling about
him very much like most of you do, that's something. When Angelus killed the
Beast and the sun re-emerged, and everybody was talking about Faith in a
"Wow, she took out the Beast in about five minutes" way, he looked for
Cordelia, going all "Faith's so great" on her - and that's the moment I felt
sympathy for him. I reckon it won't last long, taking into account that
Cordy now bears his child. Come on people, how lame is that?

It's amazing how the writers mix great scenes with rubbish in season four.
Cordy going all Phoebe, who's possibly cool with that? Make me feel my
stomach. I couldn't decide what was worse: the final scene or Cordy kissing
the Beast. I still don't know. There's an old rule in case you taped the
eps: just cut out all scenes with Cordelia, and most of the eps are as they
should be. If the writers ever sucked at creating a villain, they clearly
hit "make me sick" mode with Evil Cordelia. She's by far the worst villain
ever in the history of BtVS and AtS, don't you think?

I loved Faith, but this week's ep was just an average meal, not enough to
satisfy my appetite for a well-rounded Joss show. But if you cut out
Cordelia and forget about the Beast's stake, it was great. ;-)